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The Mainichi
4 days ago
- Business
- The Mainichi
Nearly 1/2 of nat'l universities in Japan blame job rules for weaker research capabilities
The rule allowing fixed-term academic employees to switch to indefinite employment after 10 years is a serious factor in Japan's declining research capabilities, nearly half of national universities told a recent Mainichi Shimbun survey. Universities reported that this rule -- originally intended to promote job stability -- often instead results in employment terminations just before a worker reaches 10 years under contract, leaving many academics unable to build stable, sustained research careers. Coupled with declining government funding for university operational expenses, these institutions have struggled to move away from fixed-term employment, highlighting structural problems within academia and challenging Japan's strength in research. Introduced by an amendment to the Labor Contracts Act implemented in 2013, the rule allowed regular workers who had been employed for five years on fixed-term contracts to obtain the right to convert to permanent positions. But a special exemption extended this period to 10 years for researchers whose ongoing projects often span longer timeframes. According to the education ministry, as of April 2023, some 101,602 researchers at universities and research institutions qualified for the rule's 10-year exception. At least 15,838 researchers had become eligible to switch from fixed-term employment to permanent contracts after surpassing the 10-year period, but only 982 had actually exercised their rights. It is suspected that some declined to do so after being presented with changes in employment conditions, including worse terms. Between January and February this year, the Mainichi conducted a questionnaire targeting 86 national universities (including the former Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, which have integrated into the Institute of Science Tokyo) on the potential effects of the revised Labor Contracts Act on Japan's research capabilities. Responses were received from 74 universities (86%), with 12 institutions -- including major ones like the University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University and the University of Osaka -- opting not to answer. When asked if the revised contractual rules contributed to a decline in research strength, five universities responded they had a "significant impact," and 31 answered "some impact," totaling about half (49%) of respondents. The former Tokyo Institute of Technology, which reported a "significant impact," noted, "It has become an obstacle in researchers' career paths, raising concerns about a decline in research performance in Japan as a whole." Wakayama University, which responded "some impact," explained, "In addition to creating difficulties in developing researchers, it could lead to problems such as decreased motivation and narrowing of research areas." Meanwhile, 38 universities said there was "no impact." The backdrop driving these employment terminations is a decline in national universities' operational subsidies, which fund personnel costs. Since national universities became independent administrative entities in 2004, their operational subsidies have been gradually reduced, with total cuts amounting to over 160 billion yen (approximately $1.1 billion) across two decades. This budget squeeze has pushed universities to significantly boost fixed-term contract employment. Indeed, 21 universities (around 30%) responding to the Mainichi's survey explicitly identified "the decrease in government operational subsidies due to incorporation of national universities" as one reason making the switch to permanent staff positions difficult. The number of frequently cited scientific papers -- a major indicator of international research strength -- shows Japan's sharp decline, falling from fourth to 13th place globally over the past 20 years. Professor Masashi Yanagisawa of the University of Tsukuba, a globally renowned neuroscientist specializing in sleep studies, warned, "Currently, outstanding younger researchers with strong track records and essential technical staff who support research infrastructure on-site are facing critical situations and employment insecurity due to the effects of the Labor Contracts Act. Rather than granting autonomy, national universities have experienced intensified government oversight since incorporation, and with decreased operational funding, universities now lack resources to provide permanent positions. Their hands are largely tied. If Japan wishes to continue producing Nobel laureates, we must urgently correct these structural problems."
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
What your earwax can reveal about your health
From Alzheimer's to cancer, earwax can contain valuable indicators to a person's health. Now scientists are analysing its chemistry in the hope of finding new ways of diagnosing diseases. It's orange, it's sticky, and it's probably the last thing you want to talk about in polite conversation. Yet earwax is increasingly attracting the attention of scientists, who want to use it to learn more about diseases and conditions like cancer, heart disease, and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. The proper name for the gloopy stuff is cerumen, and it's a mix of secretions from two types of glands that line the outer ear canal; the ceruminous and sebaceous glands. The resulting goo is mixed with hair, dead skin flakes, and other bodily debris until it reaches the waxy consistency we all know and try our best not to think about. Once formed in the ear canal, the substance is transported by a kind of conveyer belt mechanism, clinging on to skin cells as they travel from the inside of the ear to the outside – which they do at a speed of approximately one 20th of a millimetre every day. The primary purpose of earwax is debated, but the most likely function is to keep the ear canal clean and lubricated. However, it also serves as an effective trap, preventing bacteria, fungi and other unwelcome guests such as insects from finding their way into our heads. So far, so gross. And yet, possibly due to its unpalatable appearance, earwax has been somewhat overlooked by researchers when it comes to bodily secretions. That's now starting to change, however, thanks to a slew of surprising scientific discoveries. The first is that a person's earwax can actually convey a surprising amount of information about them – both trivial and important. For example, the vast majority of people of European or African descent have wet earwax, which is yellow or orange in colour and sticky. However, 95% of East Asian people have dry earwax, which is grey and non-sticky. The gene responsible for producing either wet or dry earwax is called ABCC11, which also happens to be responsible for whether a person has smelly armpits. Around 2% of people – mostly those in the dry earwax category – have a version of this gene which means their armpits have no odour. However, perhaps the most useful earwax-related discoveries relate to what the sticky stuff in our ears can reveal about our health. Important clues In 1971, Nicholas L Petrakis, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, found that Caucasian, African-American and German women in the USA, who all had "wet earwax", had an approximately four-fold higher chance of dying from breast cancer than Japanese and Taiwanese women with "dry" earwax. More recently in 2010, researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology took blood samples from 270 female patients with invasive breast cancer, and 273 female volunteers who acted as controls. They found that Japanese women with breast cancer were up to 77% more likely to have the gene coding for wet earwax than healthy volunteers. Nevertheless, the finding remains controversial, and large scale studies in Germany, Australia and Italy have found no difference in breast cancer risk between people with wet and dry earwax, although the number of people in these countries with dry ear wax is very small. What is more established is the link between some systemic illnesses and the substances found in earwax. Take maple syrup urine disease, a rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from breaking down certain amino acids found in food. This leads to a buildup of volatile compounds in the blood and urine, giving urine the distinctive odour of maple syrup. The molecule responsible for the sweet-smelling wee is sotolone, and it can be found in the earwax of people with the condition. This means the condition could be diagnosed through simply swabbing someone's ears, a much simpler and cheaper process than doing a genetic test. Although such a test may not even be necessary. "The earwax literally smells like maple syrup, so within 12 hours of the birth of the baby, when you smell this distinct and lovely smell it tells you that they have this inborn error of metabolism," says Rabi Ann Musah, an environmental chemist at Louisiana State University. Covid-19 can also sometimes be detected in earwax, and a person's earwax can also tell you whether they have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Early work has suggested that you can tell if someone has a certain form of heart disease from their earwax, although it's still easier to diagnose this condition from blood tests. There's also Ménière's disease, an inner ear condition that causes people to experience vertigo and hearing loss. "The symptoms can be very debilitating," says Musah. "They include severe nausea and vertigo. It becomes impossible to drive, or to go places accompanied. You eventually suffer complete hearing loss in the ear that is afflicted." Musah recently led a team which discovered that the earwax of patients with Ménière's disease has lower levels of three fatty acids than that of healthy controls. This is the first time anyone has found a biomarker for the condition, which is usually diagnosed by excluding everything else – a process which can take years. The finding raises the hope that doctors could use earwax to diagnose this condition more quickly in the future. "Our interest in earwax as a reporter of disease is directed at those illnesses that are very difficult to diagnose using typical biological fluids like blood and urine or cerebral spinal fluid, and which take a long time to diagnose because they're rare," says Musah. But what is it about earwax that makes it such a treasure trove of health information? The key, it turns out, is down to the waxy secretions' ability to reflect the inner chemical reactions taking place inside the body – a person's metabolism. "Many diseases in living organisms are metabolic," says Nelson Roberto Antoniosi Filho, a professor of chemistry at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil, who lists diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease as examples. "In these cases, mitochondria – the cell organelles responsible for converting lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins into energy – begin to function differently to those in healthy cells. They start to produce different chemical substances and may even stop producing others." Antoniosi Filho's lab have discovered that earwax concentrates this great diversity of substances more than other biological fluids such as blood, urine, sweat, and tears. "It makes a lot of sense because there's not a lot of turnover in earwax," says Bruce Kimball, a chemical ecologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre, a research institute based in Philadelphia. "It kind of builds up, and so there's certainly a reason to think that it might be a good place to capture long-term snapshots of changes in metabolism." Tricky diagnoses With this in mind, Antoniosi Filho and his team are developing the "cerumenogram" – a diagnostic tool they claim can accurately predict whether a person has certain forms of cancer based on their earwax. In a 2019 study, Antoniosi Filho's team collected earwax samples from 52 cancer patients who had been diagnosed with either lymphoma, carcinoma, or leukaemia. The researchers also took earwax from 50 healthy subjects. They then analysed the samples using a method which can accurately detect the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – chemicals that evaporate easily in air. The researchers identified 27 compounds in earwax that served as a kind of "fingerprint" for cancer diagnosis. In other words, the team could predict with 100% accuracy whether someone had cancer (either lymphoma, carcinoma, or leukaemia) based on the concentrations of these 27 molecules. Interestingly, the test could not distinguish between different types of cancer, suggesting that the molecules are produced either by, or as a response to, cancer cells from all these types of cancer. "Although cancer consists of hundreds of diseases, from a metabolic point of view, cancer is a single biochemical process, which can be detected at any stage through the evaluation of specific VOCs," says Antoniosi Filho. While in 2019 the team identified 27 VOCs, they are currently focusing on a small number of these that are exclusively produced by cancer cells as part of their unique metabolism. In as-yet unpublished work, Antoniosi Filho says they have also shown that the cerumenogram is able to detect the metabolic disturbances that occur in pre-cancerous stages, where cells exhibit abnormal changes that could potentially lead to cancer, but are not yet cancerous. "Considering that medicine indicates that most cancers diagnosed at stage 1 have up to a 90% cure rate, it is conceivable that the success in treatment will be much higher with the diagnosis of pre-cancer stages," says Antoniosi Filho. The research group is also studying whether the metabolic changes caused by the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's could also be picked up by such a device, although this work is in the early stages. "In the future, we hope that the cerumenogram will become a routine clinical examination, preferably every six months, that allows, with a small portion of earwax, to simultaneously diagnose diseases such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, as well as evaluate metabolic changes resulting from other health conditions," says Antoniosi Filho. In Brazil, the Amaral Carvalho Hospital has recently adopted the cerumenogram as a diagnostic and monitoring technique for cancer treatment, says Antoniosi Filho. Musah is also hopeful that her research will one day help people suffering from Ménière's disease, a condition for which there is currently no cure. She first hopes to validate her test on a larger sample of patients in the clinic, before producing a diagnostic test that could be used by clinicians in their offices. "We are currently working on developing a test kit very similar to what you would see in over-the-counter types of kits that you can buy for Covid-19 testing," says Musah. Understanding earwax Just the observation that three fatty acids are very low compared to normal earwax may also provide some clues that can be further investigated, Musah explains. "It might help us understand what causes the disease, or perhaps even suggest ways in which it can be treated," she says. Musah says that a lot of foundational work is still needed to understand the chemical profile of normal, healthy earwax – and how this changes in different disease states. But she hopes that one day it may be routinely analysed in hospitals to diagnose diseases, in much the same way as blood. "Earwax is a really wonderful matrix to use because it is very lipid rich, and there are lots of diseases that are a consequence of dysregulation of lipid metabolism," says Musah. Perdita Barran, a chemist and professor of mass spectrometry at the University of Manchester in the UK, doesn't study earwax specifically, but does analyse biological molecules and investigate if they could be used to diagnose diseases. She agrees that, theoretically at least, it makes sense that this substance would be a good place to look for signs of illness. "The compounds that you find in blood tend to be water soluble, whereas earwax is a very lipid-rich substance, and lipids don't like water," says Barran. "So if you only study blood, you only get half the picture. Lipids are the canary in the coal mine molecules. They're the ones that really start changing first." -- For trusted insights into better health and wellbeing rooted in science, sign up to the Health Fix newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights. For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Al Jazeera
14-04-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Japan's Expo 2025 revives memories of Tokyo Olympics' cost blowout
Osaka, Japan – Expo 2025 has opened to crowds of visitors in Osaka, Japan amid controversy over weak ticket sales and the event's enormous cost. Hosted inside the world's largest wooden structure, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, the mega event began on Sunday with more than 160 countries showcasing exhibits ranging from a Martian meteorite to a laboratory-grown heart. Despite heavy rain and gushing winds, visitors queued for hours on the first day of the Expo to get a chance to visit some 80 pavilions on site. Japan's government has cast the event, themed 'Designing Future Society for Our Lives', as an opportunity for the world to work together to overcome 'various crises of divisions'. 'At times such as these, I believe it is extremely meaningful for people from around the globe to come together to discuss the theme of 'life' and to be exposed to cutting-edge technology, diverse ways of thinking and cultures,' Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at the opening ceremony on Saturday. The run-up to the quinquennial event was marked by a series of setbacks, including a methane gas leak at the venue and Japan Airlines's decision to pull out of a much-hyped air taxi demonstration. But most embarrassing for the organisers has been the sluggish ticket sales relative to the event's considerable cost. Slightly more than nine million tickets were sold before the opening, a far cry from the target of 14 million. The weak sales have cast doubt on the government's estimate that more than 80 percent of operating costs would be covered by ticket revenues. Meanwhile, construction costs nearly doubled from their original estimate of 235 billion yen ($1.65bn). The prospect of heavy financial losses has revived uncomfortable memories of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when city authorities were forced to go cap in hand to the central government after the cost of the competition blew past estimates. The Osaka Expo risks repeating the 'failure' of the Tokyo Olympics, said Morinosuke Kawaguchi, a technology analyst and former lecturer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. 'No one wants to talk about the Tokyo Olympics as it's a traumatic experience [for the government], but this expo is likely going to be another trauma,' Kawaguchi told Al Jazeera. 'The Tokyo Olympics didn't become a huge political issue after, but this time there are no excuses.' Kawaguchi said the reception for the 2025 Expo is likely to pale in comparison to the fanfare that greeted the 1970 event in Osaka, which attracted some 64 million visitors. 'For that one, two years before the event, the TV showed that the pavilion of the US was completed, and people were excited,' he said. In addition to weak ticket sales, the expo was beset by construction delays, with most of the pavilions still not completed in the final month before opening. Kawaguchi said Japan's older population is also not necessarily as interested in new technologies as it was in 1970. Japan's lawmakers, who are mostly aged above 50 years, 'held on to the good memories' of the 1970 Osaka World Expo, Kawaguchi said. 'They thought it can be a trigger for an economic boost, but it's just a hallucination,' he said. Some observers fear that the Osaka Expo will follow in the footsteps of the 2000 Hannover World Expo, which received less than half of the 40 million visitors projected by organisers and racked up a deficit exceeding $800m. Enthusiasm was so low for the event that the organisers had to slash the ticket price by more than 10 percent just a month after the opening, and the loss was eventually covered by millions of tax revenue. The Japanese government last year estimated that the Osaka Expo would generate 3 trillion yen ($21bn) worth of economic benefits. More recently, the private Resona Research Institute last month estimated that tourism generated by the event could boost the country's consumption by 1 trillion yen ($7bn), with overseas visitors accounting for about one-third of that amount. The Osaka Expo's prospects, however, have not been helped by the trade tensions set off by US President Donald Trump's tariffs policy. Mega events such as world expos are often complicated by trade wars, said Tai-wei Lim, a professor of business and Japanese studies at Soka University in Hachioji, Japan. 'The ongoing trade wars and global uncertainties of a polycrisis [could] create challenging factors beyond Japan's control,' Lim told Al Jazeera. Counting in the expo's favour is the fact that Japan has been riding a tourism boom. Last year, the country welcomed a record 36.9 million visitors, a more than 15 percent increase from the pre-pandemic record. In January and February, tourist arrivals were up 28 percent compared with the same period last year. 'A fraction of these visitors would trawl in significant revenue,' Lim said. Most attendees, however, are expected to be Japanese. The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition has forecast that nearly 90 percent of visitors will be residents of the country. In a poll by Kyodo News last month, nearly three in four Japanese said they had no interest in visiting the event. Kawaguchi, the former lecturer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said the lack of interest could be attributed to changes in the tech landscape. 'It's not necessary for people to gather in the real world. At home you can experience it,' he said. 'These expos can move online.' Lim, however, said the expo could still play an important role in tech development and diplomacy for the region. 'It's important regionally as there are intentions and desires, especially on the part of China, Japan and [South] Korea, to [forge] regional economic ties,' he said. As for the legacy of the expo, the government has said it plans to repurpose the Grand Ring after the event but has not provided further details. Lim said the government could take inspiration from the Tokyo Olympics, whose venues were converted into condominiums, energy-charging stations and recreational facilities. Japan will want to 'sustain productive use of such spaces' after the expo ends in October, Lim said.
Arab News
24-02-2025
- Business
- Arab News
New book provides deep dive into Saudi-Japanese business relations
RIYADH: As the Kingdom celebrates 70 years of diplomatic relations with Japan, dignitaries from the two nations came together in Riyadh recently for the launch of a new book that provides a deep insight into the world of Japanese commerce. Titled 'Descendants of the Samurai,' author Dr. Khalid Al-Rashoud told Arab News his work 'provides insights into cultural differences, communication and negotiation styles, and building effective strategies for achieving professional success.' The book, he said, 'navigates business relations with the Japanese counterparts and provides fresh insights into the cultural norms, the stars of communications and successful strategic techniques for negotiations, holding meetings, resolving conflicts.' Al-Rashoud, who has a doctorate in transformation management and development engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and once worked as an adviser at the Saudi Embassy in Japan, said the book would help people to 'understand the unique character of Japanese people and Japanese culture, which is tremendously rich.' '(Japan) has a long-standing history that is full of knowledge, full of philosophy, full of science that we need to utilize … (but) often the language barriers and also the geographic variety, hinder its reach.' Al-Rashoud, who is also the author of 'Saudi-Japanese Relations,' said his latest work was mostly aimed at business people, but would also benefit government officials and those working at nongovernmental organizations or as researchers or students. He said he believed it could help bring Japan closer to the Kingdom and the Arab world in general. Among the guests at the launch was Japan's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Yasunari Morino. He told Arab News: 'Japan and Saudi Arabia enjoy long-standing friendship and great relations in all areas including the economic and cultural. To further deepen the relationship, mutual understanding between the people is extremely important. 'So this work … is a great contribution to further deepening mutual understanding between the two people and deepening friendship between the two countries.'
South China Morning Post
07-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Osaka Expo's slow ticket sales raise fears of another financial flop for Japan
This Week in Asia Economics Published: 9:30am, 7 Feb 2025 The coming World Expo in Osaka, touted as a grand exhibition of futuristic culture, has struggled to attract visitors, with poor ticket sales highlighting broader issues of cost overruns, construction delays and waning public enthusiasm for large-scale events in ageing Japan . Advance ticket sales for the expo have been so disappointing that the Japanese government is considering scrapping its policy of requiring them to be bought in advance and allowing visitors to pay to enter on the same day. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said authorities were looking into the matter after a meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday with Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, who called for greater assistance from the national government to promote the mammoth event. Tickets went on sale in November 2023 and organisers had anticipated they would be able to sell 14 million tickets for the six-month long event, which opens on April 13. But as of January 29, organisers admitted they had sold just 7.67 million tickets. The slow uptake has stoked fears that if visitor numbers fail to meet expectations, taxpayers may once again be forced to bear the burden like they did with 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which lost out on the anticipated windfall from foreign visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic. 'Before Osaka was nominated as the host city, the governor was reassuring everyone about the cost and that everything would go smoothly,' said Morinosuke Kawaguchi, a technology analyst and consultant who was previously a lecturer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
